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Are Arsenal fans disappointed or happy for the draw?

I really enjoyed the free-flowing end-to-end football from both sides in last night’s draw against PSG, but that is exactly the entertaining sort of game that Arsenal are great at providing.

When we went 1-0 down without threatening the French Champions it looks like we were in for a torrid night, but the boys got their rhythm going and Sanchez earned us a great penalty duly converted by Olivier Giroud.

The second half we were perhaps a bit lucky to get a strange rebound to take the lead but that was equalled out by Iwobi’s slackness to put the ball in his own net. Although we still had some chances in the last quarter of the game it looked to me that PSG had more chances, and yet again Cavani kept missing his chances to punish us. So was a draw a fair result or should we have had all three points? So what did the players and manager think?

Kieran Gibbs felt we could have played better. “It’s a disappointment because it was a good opportunity for us to finish top of the group.” Gibbs said. “We still have a chance but when you go 2-1 up, you want to finish it off in the second half and we haven’t managed to do that. To be honest it’s disappointment that we wanted to perform better. When we get the ball, we can be a lot more dangerous than we showed tonight. But we know we’ve got the quality and we’ll keep going.”

…..”I think, judging by our performance, a draw was probably what we deserved in the end. They’re a good side and they showed that tonight. We can be better and it’s all about working hard to be better. We’ve got the quality.”

Carl Jenkinson was asked if he thought it was a blow to only draw. “Yeah it does. I feel like, for the majority of the game, we were the better team and we could have won it. But it wasn’t meant to be. It’s frustrating because I think it’s a game we could have won.”

But he admitted that it could have gone the other way as well. “I think so. You see Cavani’s chance at the end with his head… they could have nicked it as well. But I think we were the stronger team so it’s a bit disappointing when you haven’t won.

“…It’s frustrating we didn’t win – it feels a bit like a defeat. Everyone’s a bit flat but in the grand scheme of things it’s not a terrible result. We just have to go to Basel and get a good result.”

Arsene Wenger was a bit more objective, saying that both sides had their moments. “Well, I think we have put the intensity into the game and overall I believe that we were committed, for periods dominant. But the start of the game was in favour of Paris Saint-Germain because I think we let them play too comfortably.

“After, the last 20 minutes of the first half we pushed up and came back to 1-1. We had a very strong start again in the second half, where we were dominant until it was 2-1 and after we dropped off and didn’t maintain the pressure and we paid for that. It’s frustrating because we scored an own goal basically on a ball where we thought it was a goal kick. We were a bit passive on the corner, but it’s a 2-2. It’s of course disappointing because we were 2-1 up, but we played against a good team that has top technical quality and that’s it.”

So we haven’t finished top of the Group, but we certainly had a go and gave as good as we got. But PSG also played adventurously and over-ran us at times. So what is your take on it? Are you happy with the draw or do you think we should have won it?

17 thoughts on “Are Arsenal fans disappointed or happy for the draw?”

I think the Xhaka substitution should have been made before they scored. Verratti began to ping balls about and you could sense a goal was not far away. He should have came on for Ozil or Iwobi, I would have looked to replace Giroud too with someone who has legs in him and told him to not give them any time up there to pick a pass. We set up to attack, the moment we had the lead we should of beefed up the midfield. I was surprised Arsene didn’t to be honest, I think he wanted to put down a marker and believed we would beat them by playing the so called right way.

I agree with you completely. Wenger is notoriously stubborn with subs and never makes one before the hour mark unless a player is injured. In most games, the subs come around the 65th minute. There is a logic to this, saving your subs for greater impact or in case of a red. Tactically however, sometimes you need to do this earlier if the match is not in your favour to be on the front foot or if it is to secure what you have. We scored in the 60th minute and AW watched and waited as PSG were all over us before making the sub after they scored with 12 minutes to go. Xhaka for Iwobi after the goal would have meant a midfield 3 of Rambo-Xhaka-Coq going toe to toe with PSGs Veratti-Krycho-Motta. At least if this didnt work, Ox or Walcott could have come on as a counter attacking outlet. Dreadfully naive from Wenger.
At least we didnt come third (again) in a 2 horse race like Spurs lol who return to Thursday night football as is normal

we are missing Hector Bellerin,
when his playing its as if arsenal have a twelfth man, the way he sprints forward to help with attack and sprints back to defend, i think OX dose a good job on the right while Bellerin is out

Really wanted a win it would have lifted all players if we could have won group. But over all happy with a Draw as it could have been no points at all if we are totally honest. I would have been more disappointed to only get a point if i was one of there fans, just hope we can start finishing teams off and turning these draws into 3 points

Something else i dont understand – in a game were we haven’t had a shot at goal in the first 30min, we still opt for a quick free – kick in a dangerous position or a short corner and loose the ball in both instances.

I always said that once Giroud & Ramsey get back from injury then Arsenal was bound to begin having problems winning consecutively because they are slow & Wenger favors both of them. It’ll be interesting to see his selection when Santi Carzola & Welbeck recover. We have a good team but am afraid Wenger may blow the chances of winning any major trophy

@Gooner4G, I agree with you. There was no hold up and creativity at the middle and PSG were dominant there through out the game. The attacking system was too slow and there was no considerable pressure on the opponents back line. If you look at the penalty awarded, it was found with a fast attacking movement. Such movements should have been more and more. But this was restricted due to the slow target man striker line up. More over, Iwobi should have been replaced earlier as his fearless dribbling pass had no end result in this game rather than giving it away easily. On the other hand, Ozil was not to the standard in the game.